To Love Somebody
by x0-vindicated-0x
Summary: After tragedy hits the MacDonaldVenturi family, Derek realizes that to love somebody often means giving up everything to be with them. Oneshot Dasey


**This is just a little oneshot that popped into my head after a boring car ride that ended with a trip to the graveyard, followed by hearing Avril Lavignes 'When You're Gone' so this could be vaguely inspired by that . This was done in about forty five minutes, an hour tops ; so how structured it is I couldn't possibly say. We'll find out (: So read and REVIEW!! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the show, or even the song mentioned above.**

**To Love Somebody**

Grief had been hanging over the MacDonald-Venturi household for four days on end. Between the crying, the questions and the funeral arrangements, there was barely a a moment that one could find to be alone. Distant relatives that nobody could even remember seeing before had been darting in and out of the house ever since the obituary had been published on Tuesday. Nobody could really keep track of what was happening anymore. The tragedy itself had occured on Monday; the obituary had appeared Tuesday. The family had been overwhelmed with support from distant relatives, neighbors, teachers and friends for all of Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday was the first real day that they were able to relax in the comfort of their home without having to worry about anybody bugging them. They just wanted to be alone.

But the silence was scary. Nora and Lizzie had confined themselves to their bedrooms, and Marti; always wanting to follow the activities of the other females in the house; had followed their example. Edwin had long ago escaped to the treehouse in the backyard. What he was doing out there, nobody knew, but he was being deathly silent. George had been sitting at the table for most of the day, writing quick thank you notes to everybody who had sent along cards or flowers for the family. Derek was glad that nobody had come into his room. He didn't exactly want to talk to anybody about what had happened. It had all been a big accident. Nobody had seen the car that had come out of nowhere and struck Casey's side of the car. Nobody had really had the time; it had all happened so quickly.

But by Friday, they had to start making the final arrangements for the funeral; which was to take place the next day, and for what was to be written on Casey's headstone. The whole family was sitting around the table, but the only ones that were really concentrated on the task were George and Nora. They had finished off the funeral plans already; with very few suggestions from the younger ones. George and Nora had a sheet of paper in front of them, and were filling out suggestions of what they wanted to be placed on Casey's headstone.

"What do you think, Lizzie?" Nora asked, her voice cracking as she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. She pushed the sheet towards Lizzie. "What do you think of this one?"

Lizzie glanced at the sheet, reading it quickly before glancing back up at her mother. She seemed to be supressing the need to say something snappy at her mother, but she finally just bit back whatever rude remark she had and shook her head, her voice wavering with unshed tears as she spoke.

"I can't do this." she said, before getting up and running up the stairs. The whole family listened as her footsteps got more and more distant. Finally there was the unmistakeable sound of a door being slammed, and everything fell quiet again. Edwin sighed and shook his head.

"I'll go check on her." he said, before pushing back his chair and darting up the stairs, not glancing back at the rest of them. Nora sighed and pressed her hands against her face, clearly trying to hold back her own tears. George drew in a shaky breath and glanced at a now nineteen year old Derek. Derek had stuck around over the past few days even though him and Casey had long ago moved away for university in New York. He'd felt that this was an occasion that he should be home for.

"Derek, do you have any suggestions?" he asked his oldest son, trying to stay confident. Derek, who had been sitting with his arms folded across his chest, finally looked up at his father and shook his head.

"Sorry Dad," he said, as though snapping out of a trance. "What did you say?"

"Do you have any suggestions for what should be written on Ca- .. um, on the headstone."

Derek scowled at his fathers inability to even say her name, but unfolded his arms and shook his head, staring hard at the table. He couldn't think of how to put his thoughts on Casey's death into words. Nothing came close to saying how he felt.

"I don't know, Dad." he muttered, running his fingers along the edge of the table. "Put whatever you want. I don't really care."

George tossed the pencil down onto the table and glared at his son, clearly angry.

"You know Derek, I know you and Casey didn't get along very well, but the _least _you could do is show the littlest bit of respect for your stepsister. You two may have had your differences but she was a valued member of this family. So you can hate her all you want, but I suggest you push your feelings to the back of your mind; at least until after the funeral. It'd be great if we could at least make the impression that you gave a damn about her."

Derek stared at his father for a moment, his chest heaving with anger. He opened his mouth, and seemed to be contemplating voicing his comeback to his father but after a moment, he shook his head and stood up. Without a word, he stormed up the stairs and into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

George looked from Marti to Nora; who was still crying. Marti shook her head at her father.

"You really shouldn't have done that, Dad." Marti said, sounding mature for her nine years. "You just made Smerek even sadder."

"What do you mean _even _sadder?" George asked, leaning forward in his seat, interested. "He didn't seem upset to begin with."

Marti shook her head at her uninformed father.

"That's not true Daddy." she said, looking sad. "I saw Smerek yesterday in his room. He was crying."

"He was _crying_?" George repeated, surprised. "Everyone else I can understand but .. Derek? Are you sure he was crying, Marti? And remember what we said about lying."

"It's not a lie, Daddy." Marti said, standing up and leaning her hands against the table. "It's true. Smerek's sad because he lost Casey. I think it's 'cause he loves her."

Without another word, Marti darted towards the living room and flung herself onto the couch, not waiting to see if her father would say anything else. But he didn't. He sat there, running over his youngest daughters words in his head. He couldn't believe Derek had been crying over Casey. He'd never even gotten the impression that Derek cared about Casey in the slightest. Motioning to Nora to follow, he got up, his paper clutched in his hand, and started up the stairs towards Derek's bedroom.

George and Nora stepped into Derek's room to see him sitting back on to them, hugging something tightly against his chest. George couldn't see what it was, and he didn't want to ask. Whatever his son was looking at was private. He knocked lightly on the open door next to him. Sensing that he wasn't alone anymore, Derek laid whatever he was holding down on the floor next to his bed and turned to his parents. George could have sworn that Derek wiped away a few tears before standing up and crossing the room, standing in front of his parents.

"What is it?" he asked bitterly. "Did you come to yell at me some more?"

"No Derek, I came to ask your honest opinion on what we have written for Casey's headstone." George said, extending the paper to his son. Derek shook his head and pushed the paper away.

"I told you; I don't-"

"Derek just .. do it." George said, pushing the paper against Derek's chest firmly. "For us and for Casey. Please."

Derek looked at his father for a moment as though he was about to protest but instead, he rolled his eyes and took the paper from his fathers hands angrily. He scanned over what it said quickly, biting his lip as he read. Neither of his parents spoke as he was reading through the paper, but both looked at him expectantly as he handed the sheet back to his father.

"So?" George asked him, raising his eyebrows. "What do you think?"

"It's Venturi." was all Derek said, before turning his back on his father and sitting on his bed again. He reached over the side and picked up the item that he had been holding before. George saw now that it was a picture frame, but he couldn't see what the picture was. George took a step forward and studied him with curiousity.

"What do you mean it's Venturi?" George asked, laying the paper down on Derek's dresser. Derek ran his thumb across the bottom of the picture frame, lost in thought.

"Casey's last name." he said simply. "You have it as MacDonald. It's Venturi. I want it to be right."

"Casey and Lizzie didn't change their last names when I married Nora." George reminded him. "There is no law saying that they had to take on our last name when they joined our family."

"But marriage usually requires a woman to take on her husband's last name." Derek said simply, not looking at his father. His voice sounded hollow and distant. "And my last names Venturi."

George and Nora were at a loss for words. There was only one explanation to what Derek had just said to them but neither parent could see how this was possible. Derek couldn't have been married to Casey. They had hated each other. There was no way two people that were so different would have ever gotten married. Hell, there was no way two people that were so different would have even dated. George shook his head.

"I don't get what you're trying to tell us here, Derek." he said, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Me and Casey got married four months ago, when we returned to New York after Christmas." Derek said, still not raising his eyes from the photograph in front of him. He didn't seem to notice that he had temporarily stunned his parents. "We have been dating since we were sixteen, and we've been living together in New York since we started university. I proposed to Casey a year ago, and we had a small simple ceremony after Christmas. We were going to tell you before we came back for the summer holidays."

Derek tucked the photograph under his arm and stood up, taking a deep breath as he stopped in front of his father. George had never noticed how grown up his son was now. He seemed to tower over his father, and had the dark, troubled look of a man who had truly lived; and who had truly experienced life, love and loss. He had never really noticed how grown up his son had become.

"If you don't believe me, ask Edwin and Lizzie. They were at the wedding." Derek said, looking his father straight in the eye. "It was one of the weekends they came in to stay with us. They've known about us the whole time. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go. I've got a couple of things to uh - straighten away before tomorrow."

George could only assume that Derek was talking about the funeral. He didn't fight his son as Derek pushed past him and made his way into the hall, before turning and going down the stairs. He heard the front door slam and; a moment later the distinct sound of a car starting up and driving off down the road. He looked his wife in the eye and saw that she looked just as lost as he felt. Neither of them had any clue how they were supposed to react to something like this. It wasn't like they could stop it; not anymore anyway. They couldn't even bring themselves to be mad about it. What good would it do now? Besides, there was already plenty of negative emotions floating around the household. They didn't need any more. What's done was done, and they couldn't change it now. All they could do was accept it and move on.

- - - - - - -

Derek was sitting on the gravesite almost five hours after the funeral. Everyone else had been gone for hours, leaving him alone with his thoughts and emotions. There were so many things going through his head that he couldn't even focus on one for more than ten seconds. He drew his coat tighter around him as he shivered and stared sadly at the headstone in front of him. His wishes had been granted. Above the quote that George and Nora had finally picked out, read;

_'Venturi.C_

_1990-2009_

_Loving sister, daughter, friend and wife.'_

His parents had silently accepted what Derek had told them. After all; there wasn't much that they could do about it. They hadn't mentioned anything to Derek about it, but they had added the word wife to the list without even telling him. Derek had given his father a grateful nod at the funeral; one that had thanked him and shown appreciation all at once. And now here he was, sitting next to her headstone and thinking over some final things that he wanted to sort out in his head.

He could feel himself growing more and more distant. He felt cold, dizzy and in a way; sick. His head was pounding relentlessly, and his breathing was getting shallower by the moment. He was dying, and he knew it, but all he could do was smile; because he didn't even care. Painkillers were fast acting killers; when you took enough of them, but they couldn't take effect fast enough for Derek. He just wanted everything to end as soon as possible so that he could be with Casey again, where he belonged. He'd only have to be in this world without her for another few minutes. That was all it would take, and he'd be back with the one person he needed. The one person he literally couldn't live without. He didn't fear death anymore because he knew Casey would be waiting for him when it happened. And that excited him more than anything.

Within five minutes, he was fully aware that any given breath could be his last. He could feel his chest tightening with each breath he took, and he had gradually let himself slide down so that he was lying across her grave. As he felt himself slipping farther and farther away from conciousness, he looked up at the headstone and smiled the best he could.

"I love you, Casey." he muttered. And then, everything went black.

- - - - - -

When they found Derek the next day, he was clutching a picture of him and Casey tightly to his chest with one arm, the other allowing his fingers to brush lightly against Casey's headstone. There was an empty bottle of prescription painkillers in his pocket. It was pretty easy to figure out what had happened. And honestly, after it happened, everybody had wondered how they hadn't seen it coming. If you really looked at Derek, it was easy to see how much pain he was in. He was better off dead, as sadistic as it sounded. Being alive was killing him anyway.

They were buried side by side. It was the way they would have wanted it, and everyone knew that. And as people crowded around a grave belonging to someone in the MacDonald-Venturi household for the second time in less than a week and a half, they didn't feel as much pity for Derek as they had for Casey. Her death had been unnecessary and accidental. It had been tragic. Derek's death had really; in the long run, made him happy. Because they all knew he was happier now. Maybe they both were. They were together again, after all. They knew what it really meant to love somebody.

* * *

**I hope you liked it. Either way, review it!! Comments and constructive criticism are strongly encouraged!!**


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